Lucy Worsley

It's light and shade, warts and all. Don't look away. Learn about the past “

Historian Lucy Worsley is known for re-evaluating the legacy of women from our past. Now she has turned her lens onto Queen Of Crime, Agatha Christie, with a new biography and stage tour examining the author’s life and work. She chats to Christie fangirl Lucy Ribchester about middlebrow female authors, toffee lollipops and the indomitability of little old ladies

Can you tell me a bit about your first encounter with

Agatha Christie’s work? I don’t have a lovely origin story. She’s always been there as far as I can remember. I think she is sort of like the wallpaper in a lot of people’s lives. I do remember checking out an Agatha Christie as a treat from the library at the start of my school holidays. I remember getting The Blue Train just after finishing my GCSEs and diving in and sitting in a chair until I’d finished it.

tal ks •talks• talks•

You mention the Christie Archive in your book. I wondered if you could tell me about using those to research your

work? Well, if you had met Agatha Christie in person, she could be shy and withdrawn and watchful. But on paper, perhaps because she was a writer, she was so different. She was chatty and exuberant and vulnerable. Reading her correspondence was amazing. There’s this rollercoaster of correspondence when she’s trying to decide whether or not to marry her second husband. I was completely gripped by that. He was 14 years younger than her and there were all sorts of reasons not to marry him. Anyway, eventually her ten-year-old daughter worked out what was going on. And my favourite letter says, ‘Rosie’ (that was the daughter’s name) ‘has guessed about the proposal, and she will give her consent to the marriage, if you send by written two dozen toffee lollipops from Selfridges.’

All ten-year-olds should be required to negotiate

marriage . . . on behalf of their parents. Yes.

In terms of the tour you’re doing, how did you go about condensing a life that rich into a show which is just

under two hours? It’s really hard. I've been panicking about it all summer. All my family members have heard the show in various draft forms. At one point my dad said, ‘well, I didn't fall asleep’, which is high praise from him.

It’s clear from your book you want to confront head-on the problematic nature of some of Christie’s novels, for example, the subjects of class and race. Are there any of her books that you consider too problematic to still be

part of her canon? No, I don’t. I think, actually, the trouble is when people read these books just expecting entertainment. That’s when your expectations confront an uncomfortable reality. But we should read them because they are records of social history as well. And we need to know what people thought; we need to know how prevalent these attitudes were, so that we can confront that and make the present better. It’s light and shade, warts and all. Don’t look away. Learn about the past.

Do you think Agatha Christie’s legacy might be different if she was a man? Would she be taken more seriously? That’s hard to answer because she wouldn’t have written the way she wrote unless she was female. There’s been a whole strand

o th century criticism which is to osition yoursel s highbrow erson by gi ing g th hristie kicking. ut it s o ten s id the bestselling books in history re h kes e re the ible nd hristie. h t I ind stonishing is th t no one e er ollows th t by s ying she did th t in world m de by men . nd the ct th t her stories re crime stories nd th t they re middlebrow she w s ery roud o being middlebrow. hen she got one o her m ny honours I think it w s me omm nder she s id th t s one u or the lowbrows . She owned it? he did nd she lso h d roblems m king ny cl ims or her work. I m retty sure this is rtly to do with her gender nd her ictori n u bringing but lso to do with this big ublic sh ming she h d in hristie triggered n tion l m nhunt when she le t home b ndoned her c r nd mysteriously dis e red or d ys rom ting he dlines round the world . e ore then you do see her m king st tements bout her mbition nd c reer. ut ter she lw ys t lks o hersel s lucky little old l dy.

Are there any other authors you would like to see

re-evaluated, particularly women? onic ickens rb r ym os mond ehm nn li beth owen li beth ylor li beth ne How rd. id century middlebrow em le no elists re ourite o mine. I m not sh med to en oy their work.

I’m going to ask you a really horrible question to

finish. Do you have a favourite of Christie’s books? I m going to go or Murder At The Vicarage bec use it introduces my ourite hristie ch r cter iss r le. h t s brilli nt bout Murder At The Vicarage is th t to the irst re ders they wouldn t e en h e known th t this slightly unny old l dy w s the detecti e. I me n we know it s iss r le. ut you wouldn t know th t i you were icking u the irst edition o th t book. his week I e been thinking bout icture o g th hristie the ueen rime meeting the ctu l ueen t the ilm remiere o DeathOn TheNile. I e been thinking bout indomit bility nd longe ity nd the w y th t you mustn t underestim te little old l dies.

An Evening With Lucy Worsley On Agatha Christie, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Sunday 9 October; Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman is out now, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

• m

f •fil ilm • film CLASSIC CUT: ORLANDO

In the l te s nd e rly s ritish film out ut seemed to be m rkedly s lit between the soci l re lism o ike eigh nd en o ch nd the rch gr ndiosity o eter reen w y nd erek rm n. lunging he dfirst into this b ttle roy le w s lly otter with the film th t m de her n me the d t tion o irgini ool s no el which h d re iously resided in th t busy bo m rked unfilm ble . It did t ke otter se en ye rs to com lete but the e ort w s well worth it s it l unched ild winton onto new le el in the title role o the ndrogynous noblem n while this gender mi ing continued s uentin ris l yed the dying li beth I. highly e eriment l ir Orlando e tured time tr el ourth w ll busting nd the cting o illy ne while uoting e erything rom h kes e re to the ur n. his l ish tre t is rt o the s se son o films including The Favourite and Velvet G oldm ine celebr ting costume designer ndy owell. ri n on ldson n G FT, G lasgow , Tuesday 4, T hur sday 6 Octobe r.

AGAINST THE CLOCK

t e a h tre •the a tre •

Jordan & Skinner’s feminist retelling of The Time Machine has been six years in the making. Rachel Ashenden caught up with the duo to talk about cynicism, the burden of Gen Z and laughing in the face of impending doom

Melanie Jordan and Caitlin Skinner make joyful theatre about the things that anger them. Prioritising the perspectives o women nd non bin ry eo le their first roduction Sani tise won a Scotsman Fringe First in 201 4. During the wake of Donald Trump’s election and the EU referendum, they turned to H ells sci fi cl ssic The Tim e Machine . Swinging between feelings of ‘hope and doom’, the feminist duo took to adapting the speculative story for theatre, using it to navigate their emotional pendulum as well as their own entrenched cynicism.

Cynicism wasn’t always the order of the day for Jordan & Skinner. hey both grew u in the s when the uture elt uite bright re ects Jordan. As they reached adulthood, this brightness dimmed. With the rise of populism, the climate emergency and growing class divisions, they came to the realisation that human progress doesn’t always equate to moving forward in a positive way. For this reason, the plot of Wells’ The Tim e Machine struck a chord. Set in the Victorian era against a booming industrial revolution, Wells’ protagonist is confronted with a strange future, one that no one could have anticipated.

In Jordan & Skinner’s adaptation of this groundbreaking text, a group of four feminists prepare a bunker for the end of the world. The cause of their imminent deaths is unknown, though the writers indicate it could be due to environmental breakdown, fascism or nuclear war. In their bunker, a space that symbolises the rejection of capitalism and current structures, the characters imagine what a feminist utopia might look like.

Skinner observes that their characterisation draws upon the pressure that Gen Z experiences to minimise the damage caused by older generations: ‘they feel the burden of being the hope and the nurture which will bring about a better world’. Although united over the common cause of combating

PICTURE: MARIA STOIAN the patriarchy, there is disparity between the characters’ isions or the uture which le ds to inter erson l con ict To counterbalance such devastating themes, Jordan & Skinner employ comedic relief through the means of passive aggression; they agree that negotiating communal li ing is uni ers lly unny. ord n confirms th t e en when faced with Armageddon, people can still be divided into two camps: those who leave Post-it notes about the washing up, and those who ignore the Post-it notes along with the washing up. She laughs, disclosing that her character is firmly in the ormer c tegory.

Jordan believes theatre offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with a room full of artists. Much like the characters in their play, the cast would generously challenge any perceived notions of what a feminist future could or should be. kinner re ects th t ll o the work they do ‘comes from a genuine question about the state of the world . . . it’s a process of going through the cynicism and the frustration and turning it into a joyful performance.’

Jordan & Skinner: The Time Machine, Platform, Glasgow, Friday 7 & Saturday 8 October; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 26–Friday 28 October; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thursday 3–Saturday 5 November. PREVIEWS

Sunday 02 October Brodka

Wednesday 05 October RuPaul’s Fantastic Five of 14

Saturday 08 October Bongo’s Bingo

Friday 14 October Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems

Saturday 15 October Bongo’s Bingo

Sunday 16 October Oliver Heldens

Friday 21 October The Dualers

Friday 28 October Saturday 29 October Bongo’s Bingo

Saturday 22 October The Enemy + Little Man Tate

Monday 31 October Paolo Nutini

Saturday 05 November Sunday 06 November Big Big Wedding Fair & Fashion Show

Thursday 10 November Afrojam Series Presents SIMI + Raybekah

Saturday 12 November Darren Styles

Wednesday 23 November Blossoms

Monday 28 November Fontaines D.C.

Wednesday 30 November The Game

Friday 02 December Saturday 03 December Bongo’s Bingo

Friday 09 December Saturday 10 December Big Big Christmas Party

Wednesday 14 December Fields of the Nephilim

Friday 16 December Saturday 17 December Big Big Christmas Party

Friday 20 January Mcfleetwood & Freddie & Queen Experience

Saturday 25 February Paul Smith – Joker

Thursday 09 March Fatboy Slim

Friday 31 March Johnny Lee Memphis / Aaron Walker - Double Trouble

O2 Academy Edinburgh

11 New Market Road Edinburgh EH14 1RJ o2academyedinburgh.co.uk

VILLAGE PEOPLE

Folk practices, punk machinery and rural labour merge in a new exhibition by Polish artist Iza Tarasewicz. She tells Neil Cooper that her installation is about bringing communities together in this fragmented and damaged world

art• art•art• art•

Iza Tarasewicz never danced the mazurka while growing up on her family farm in the rural Polish village of Koplany. Indeed, it w s dec de go when she first disco ered the prevalence of this 16th-century folk dance that brought farm worker serfs together in w y th t h s in uenced simil r e ressions o choreographed community across the world.

Tarasewicz has applied the mazurka’s spirit to her first solo e hibition. t r mw y the dance’s circular rhythms become a life force to her large-scale sculptural constructions which have been crafted from agricultural machinery rendered redundant by industrialisation. Following research based on the decline in farm labour, agricultural problems and controls on produce distribution in the wake of Russia’s in sion o kr ine r sewic gi es wh t she calls ‘traumatised objects’ a new lease of life that mirrors a real need for community in a turbulent world.

‘The whole world is in a crazy state just now,’ says Tarasewicz. ‘There are major political, social and ecological problems that are the same everywhere. But the biggest problem is how our communities have divorced people from being together. he m in ocus in the e hibition is on folk traditions within communities which are disappearing everywhere. That’s the saddest part for me and is related to how modern production of food and agriculture is manipulated by politicians; we can see that with wh t is h ening in kr ine. r sewic s e erience stems in rt rom moving back to her village at the start of the pandemic. ‘It's beautiful to come back to my village again to do this research,’ she says, ‘but after industrialisation, agriculture looks tot lly di erent so big rt o the e hibition will be about that crisis in our communities.’ This will manifest itself in a modular system of sculptures, including a large brass work pieced together with several thousand small parts.

‘It looks a little bit like garden tools,’ says Tarasewicz. ‘But actually it is little hands making circular movements on the wall and is related s ecific lly to the m urk . course this is about dancing in a circle, but I also read about figures o uddh with m ny h nds which h e a collective power that connects with cosmic forces. So for me, this work is a tribute to labour that is disappearing, and a need to connect.’

Tarasewicz is also planning a group of largescale sculptures at the gallery’s entrance, ‘like farmers making barricades against the go ernment fighting or better ood roduction . ccom nying the e hibition will be a set of performances overseen by Polish choreographer Pawel Sakowicz, who will work with Glasgow-based dancers on a piece based on the mazurka. This celebrates the collective rhythm of life that drives Tarasewicz’s e hibition. I think it would be nice i eo le st rt to re ect on their own roots bec use we are disconnected,’ she says. ‘I think something ositi e could h en i ter ll this con ict and crisis, there was some new energy that brought power to the people.’

Iza Tarasewicz, Tramway, Glasgow, Saturday 8 October–Sunday 29 January; performances choreographed by Pawel Sakowicz will take place on Friday 7, Saturday 22 October and Saturday 5 November.